Norm Macdonald’s Darkest Bits
While some comedians might be swayed not to tell a joke because it’s offensive or it’s unnecessarily mean or it deals with the deaths of millions of people, the late Norm Macdonald only cared if a joke was funny, poor taste be damned.
Here are 11 such bits that take the darkest of topics and turn them into something you can’t help but laugh at…
Norm on Death
Macdonald didn’t want to be remembered with a party.
Norm on O.J. Simpson
There are countless very dark jokes Macdonald told about Simpson during his run as the anchor of Weekend Update, but maybe the best was the one about O.J.’s “Lucky Stabbin’ Hat.”
Norm on the Heisman Trophy
The ESPYs must have known Macdonald was going to bring up O.J., right?
Norm on Michael Jackson
While Macdonald was famous for telling jokes about O.J., another frequent target was Michael Jackson’s sexual preferences.
Norm on the Holocaust
Macdonald’s idea of a funny running joke was repeatedly calling his Jewish sidekick a Holocaust denier in front of celebrities.
Norm on 9/11
9/11 wasn’t too risqué for Macdonald to talk about either, like this joke about “9/11 Airlines” from Norm Macdonald Live.
Norm on Comas
Much of this Conan appearance was dedicated to purposefully corny jokes about Macdonald’s fictional battle-axe of a wife, but eventually he gets to a tremendously tasteless joke about a woman in a coma.
Norm on Andy Richter
Macdonald’s winding tale about Conan’s sidekick, the Swedish-German, is a story for the ages.
Norm on ‘Tonight Show’ Host Conan O’Brien: The New King of Late Night
When Conan was just days away from his final appearance as host of The Tonight Show, Macdonald came on to give him a gift basket that he meant to give him seven months earlier, when O’Brien began hosting.
Norm on the Crocodile Hunter
The best part about this hilarious bit, which was just days after the death of Steve Irwin, is Jon Stewart’s helpless pleading for Macdonald to stop telling it.
Norm on Suicide
While many say they don’t understand how someone could take their own life, Macdonald dedicated a whole bit to taking the exact opposite position by highlighting the misery of the human experience.
